The invention relates to a travelling hopper belt car with a feed chute and a throw-off conveyor belt that can pivot on a horizontal axis in a vertical plane in the area of the feed chute.
Systems of this kind are used for up-take of material to be conveyed that is differentially fed to the conveyor system and is to be differentially released.
Such equipment is described in Braunkohle, Issue 10, page 345, and Issue 11, page 395, of 1981. It is used, among other things, for conveyor systems in surface mining operations. It is used as a link between discontinuous extraction and continuous conveyance of lignite, as well as for other purposes. For example, several excavators, such as power shovels, can be used alternately to load such hopper belt cars.
To protect the belt of the hopper belt car, a known method is to add grizzly screens that tilt hydraulically to the belt. The hopper of such a system may comprise two bucket fillings. The grizzly screen can be cleaned from time to time by dumping and hydraulic lifting of lumps on material on the screen.
French Pat. No. 1,188,800 describes a conveyor belt that is loaded discontinuously with material. Problems tend to arise most often when the feedstock adheres or cakes together to the conveyor belt. There is a danger then that the conveyor belt will be erratically loaded. To avoid this problem, the side walls of the feed hopper are divided, and the upper section of the side walls is capable of pivoting on a horizontal axis. The upper parts of the side walls are designed as grates, with bars running roughly vertically and bent into a trough shape. Trough-shaped pickup spaces are thereby created, the grate walls of which can be pivoted upwardly. The adhering material can then slide down along these grate walls as they pivot upwardly. Such feed devices are also intended for other uses, such as unloading out of transfer troughs under such travelling conveyor cars.
German patent disclosure No. 1,947,520 describes a feed device for conveyor belts that is supposed to be particularly useful for loading a conveyor belt with two part trailers and can be driven even by inexperienced drivers without the assistance of other auxiliary personnel.
The German patent disclosure solves this problem by an arrangement with at least one platform that is positioned with the capacity to pivot in the area of the feed point of the conveyor belt. At one end position, the platform lies on the ground and can be travelled on or over. At its other end position the platform constitutes at least one vertical side wall for the conveyor belt system.